Army Chief VK Singh is becoming the Raj Narain of The Indian Army.
First he raised his age issue , where it was evident to every one he was not honest, to say the least.
He produced two dates of Births,1950 and 1951.
He accepted all the promotions due to him based on 1950 DOB and when the retirement issue came up, he started saying that his DOB was 1951 and even went to the extent of filing a case in the Supreme Court against the Government.
Unlike him, the Court had the sense to have the matter sorted out out side the Court as it does not augur well for the Country Defence Chief and The Government fighting in Public and VK Singh did abide by the Defence Ministry’s DOB of 1950.
Now he has disclosed in an interview in The Hindu that he was offered a bribe of Rs. 14 Crore for favouring Tatra Trucks and that he had informed the Defence Ministry of this affair -Mind you,the did not make this revelation to his Supreme Commander,The President of India -he announced it in an interview to a National Newspaper!
Not content with this, may be connected with this issue, a letter from VK Singh to The Prime Minister surfaced about the lack of equipments to the Army and the general preparedness of The Indian Armed Forces.
1.If the complaint is true why did not VK Singh record this in writing to the Defence Minister( who has stated that he received the complaint some time back)?
In fact KK Singh seems to have been requested to do so by the Defence Minister A.K.Antony.
2.Why did VK Singh, through the Army Head quarters recommend an Army Officer -not Tejinder Singh ,for promotion about whom he raised corruption issues?
3.The Army has been using Tatra Trucks for nearly 30 Years.
Why VK Singh did not raise this issue till the date of his retirement?
Now he orders a CBI enquiry, which again is not his powers to do so.
He could have raised it when he was a Senior Officer or at least after he became the Army Chief.
VK Singh now declares that he has no issues with the Defence Ministry.
He adds that the Army Chief is a part of the Government, he has no issues with the Defence Ministry, the release of the letter addressed to the PM is ‘high treason’ and he has no hand in the letter becoming Public!
Does he believe in what he says?
As per procedure he should have addressed the letter to the Defence Minister or in the worst case should have addressed the Supreme Commander,The President of India.
PM does not enter the picture direct.
Now Tatra CMD has refuted his allegation in toto saying that only the Technologyis provided by Tatra and the Trucks are, are manufactured with 40 % Foreign Components and sold by BEML ,their Agent in India.
BEML is the nodal agency for Defence procurement.
The man accused by VK Singh ,Tejinder Singh has filed a defamation suit against VK Singh.
As I blogged earlier it is time VK Singh is sacked and stripped of his decorations.
VK Singh is not honest in stopping the corruption and is using this as an issue to win sympathy and gain popularity as an Honest Man after he had been proved to be less than honest in DOB affair.
However this does not mean that there is no Corruption in The Army in Procurement.
This has to be investigated and stopped.
I shall blog on How a Defence order is secured.
“The CBI on Friday registered a case into Army chief Gen V K Singh‘s Rs 14-crore bribery offer into the alleged irregularities in the supply of the all-terrain, all-weather Tatra trucksto the Army through defence PSU BEML after 1997.
UK-based businessman Ravi K Rishi and his company Vectra has been named in the FIR. Rishi was questioned by the agency on Friday since he is currently in the national Capital for the ongoing ”DefExpo-2012′.
The agency will send a Letter Rogatory (LR) to the Czech Republic soon to get more information on the case that has been registered under Section 420 (cheating) and the Prevention of Corruption Act on the basis of a complaint from the defence ministry and independent sources.
The agency on Friday evening also received a reply from Gen V K Singh in which he reportedly told CBI officials that he was offered a bribe. “He has offered to provide more details soon but he did not mention the bribe amount,” said a senior CBI official.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Tatra-truck-deal-CBI-files-FIR/articleshow/12475873.cms
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Tatra Sipox (U.K.) Ltd, the company whose Tatra off-road vehicles are extensively used by the Army and is now in the eye of a storm over alleged bribery allegations, has written to the Defence Secretary seeking his sanction to take appropriate legal action against the Army Chief, General V.K. Singh, on grounds of “slander, libel and defamation.”
Though Gen. Singh, in an interview to The Hindu, had not mentioned by name either the Tatra vehicle, the name of the person who attempted to offer him a bribe of Rs. 14 crore to clear an order to buy 600 “substandard” vehicles, or the company the bribe giver represented, it has been widely assumed that the vehicle is Tatra, the official is Lt. Gen. (retd.) Tejinder Singh, and that he was doing so on behalf of Tatra Sipox. However, a press release issued by the Army did mention Lt. Gen. (retd.) Tejinder Singh’s name as the person who made the bribe offer to the Army Chief.
Lt. Gen. (retd.) Tejinder has since denied that he offered the Army Chief a bribe.
“UNFOUNDED ALLEGATIONS”
In a letter addressed to the Defence Secretary, Shashi Kant Sharma, Tatra Sipox claimed that Gen. Singh’s defamatory and “false and unfounded allegations” caused deep harm to Tatra’s reputation. The letter also states that Tatra, which supplies trucks to BEML under licence, has “no reason or occasion to have to approach Gen. V.K. Singh.”
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3259279.ece
In a sensational claim, Army Chief General VK Singh has alleged that he was offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore by an equipment lobbyist in order to have a tranche of 600 sub-standard vehicles of a particular make cleared for purchase. The Army Chief in an interview to ‘The Hindu’ also claimed that he was targeted on his date of birth because he had cracked down on corruption cases.
The army chief also said he discussed the issue with Defence Minister AK Antony .
The Army Chief said the incident took place several months ago when a retired officer came to him and told him the deal would get him a certain sum of money. The Army Chief said such incidents have taken place in the past as well and many senior officers of the Indian Army had made the deal.
VK Singh, in the interview, was quoted saying, “One of the men had the gumption to walk up to me and tell me that if I cleared the tranche, he would give me Rs 14 crore. He was offering a bribe to me, to the Army Chief. He told me that people had taken money before me and they will take money after me. I went straight to Mr. Antony and reported the matter. I told him, if you think I’m a misfit, I will walk out.â€
The Army Chief went on to add, “It was because I had cracked down on corruption that I was targeted on my date of birth. But things are fast unravelling and you will soon see the hand behind the drama. You will soon see who the sutradhar of the play is.â€
The Army Chief added that after the topic was broached he threw the officer in question out from his office and informed the Defence Minister about the incident.
http://www.timesnow.tv/I-was-offered-Rs-14-cr-bribe-Army-Chief/articleshow/4398827.cms
Related articles
- People inside Army plotted against me: VK Singh (indianmilitarynews.wordpress.com)
I hopeMr Ramani it is now clear that Gen VK Singh was correct and honest.
Well,my qustions remains unanswered. still
BEML is a PSU .Tatra is the only supplier .Only supplier can also bribe for clearing a low quality vehicle .Are public sectors also legally allowed to pay bribes ??!!
It is also not clear whether BEML is a procurement agent for Defence or a joint venture partner ?
PSUs also offer bribes, especially to Government Companies.
Tara is provides technology.
BEML uses 60% parts made indigenously and 40 % imports and assembles in India.
It is also responsible for selling and it offers bribe as well.
BEML is a nodal Agency for certain products for Defence.
However, Defence, while tendering it follows rules as per the norm for any other product.
Another interesting fact is this technology is routed through Vectra, a fully owned subsidiary of Tatra.
Obviously mark up will be there for Vectra.
Ghulam Nabi Azad had raised this issue through his letter in 2009 itself.Tatra entered the country in 1986, same year when Quattarochi enacted Bofors through his high level contacts.Why the MOD remained silent after his ministerial colleague wrote a letter to him?He is guilty of misleading and telling the untruth to the parliament that no action was taken because there was no written complaint in the matter. The truth is that he had a written ‘complaint’ in the matter from his colleague. Army Chief has done a yeoman’s job by highlighting the short-preparedness of the country. It has been a track record of the Congress to keep the country in dark about the defence preparedness of the country. They did it in 1947. Repeateed the mistake on the issue of Tibet.Again in 1962.Gen.V.K.Singh has warned the country to be prepared. Hats off to him.Defence can not be left in the hands of these corrupt leaders alone. The country has to remain vigilant.
The Defence Ministry ,I understand has already instituted an enquiry.
But as in all cases nothing is known.
If the opposition is really sincere they should have hastened the process of enquiry,which they conveniently forgot.
When all said and done all are rogues and thieves.
My blog on VK Singh is to iterate that he should have taken steps to blacklist the firms, if they are found to be manipulators and the product they supply are sub standard.
He need not have raised the issue now , this causes suspicion that he has only personal axis to grind or has he fallen out in the deal?
I think the decision making process in the present UPA-2 or for that matter even in UPA-1 is not transparent.And the decisions are taken at a level which has no constitutional mandate to do so. At least the decisions are influenced by the liking or disliking of the queen-bee.Even a body like NAC has no constitutional mandate to draft laws and send them to the cabinet for enactment. This is a very dangerous situation. But the people and even the opposition is kept in the dark about the whole issues.Enlightened persons like you have to be more vigilant to save the country.
Unfortunately, no media dares to utter the Name of Sonia Gandi